Space Camera 2

“Project HoHoHo III”
This is the second meteorological balloon i have launched. It included some sensors, two flightcomputers and four (!) camera’s. The project failed due to the radio breaking during launch, so i lost all contact, and the payload was recovered 2 months later by a German lady. Also, only one camera worked, and that actualy videotaped for 3.5 hours on just 2 AA batteries. So all is left is the video, which turned out great.

Flight Statistics

Cost

€150

Launch

19-12-2010 (13:32 GMT+1)

Recovery

26-02-2011 (DHL package)

Distance (ground)

>275km

Time-to-burst

2:40h

Time-to-ground

~3:40h

Max. Altitude

~31km

Weight

~1000g

Contents

Sensors, Flightcomputer (x2), Camera (x4)

Video: Compilation

Several Pictures

Trajectory of the balloon

Where did it go wrong?

I turned the payload on, everything worked. Then i turned the radio off, and let the payload go. Then i turned the radio back on, and everything was distorted. At least the flightcomputer worked 3 minutes, since it made the EOS350D take a few pictures, and it sent me a textmessage that it worked (via the T68i). Then, something went wrong with the powersupply, making the entire flightcomputer and the EOS350D it controlled fail. The cellphone worked too, because it had received a “Welcome to Germany!” textmessage when it landed there. But, the flightcomputer was broken, so it did not parse through a textmessage with GPS info to the phone.

Trajectory of the balloon

Recovery

Eventually the payload landed after a long time in the air in an orchard in Osterholz-Schambeck, above Bremen, at the hight of Denmark. After two months i got a phonecall from a very nice lady named Claudia (danke!), and after paying the findersfee and the postage, it took two days after receiving the box. Besides the experience, i now have all the equipment back here, for possibly a new project.

Payload Contents

Red=Did not workGreen=Worked

Canon EOS350D

Took 10 pictures the first 3 minutes.

Canon A560

Took 1 picture the first minute.

Canon A720IS

Videotaped 3:30hr (!)

Spycam Keychain HD

Videotaped 1:00hr but iPhoto corrupted the microSD

Parachute

Worked but ripped on touchdown

Radio

434.650MHz RTTY 50b, 5n1(baudot), 350Hz shift

Release mechanism

Release when >22km or when falled 600m or past 5.695deg longitude Failed due to power failure

GPS

Tyco Vinotech Sirf III (libelium)

Flightcomputer

Sensors, chips, SD log: all failed due to power failure

Video: Unpacking the Payload[3D!]

Thanks:

Many thanks to the radio and uk-high-altitude-society community (@freenode #highaltitude on IRC) for helping me track and the support. Too many names to mention! Most of all terry baum(code), daniel richman(code/general), james coxon(website/general), ‘fsphil’(general), ‘random’(general/electronics), eric de jong (tracking), Lunar_Lander(?) (support) And special thanks to the team: Daniela (support), Onno (driving)

20 Responses

do you know if you need an allowance from the air traffic control to start a stratosphere helium ballon in the netherlands ? over here in germany you need it – since I’m located relatively near the border netherlands/germany would make sense to do a “hop” and avoid official allowances

Tim,
Congrats on the HoHo-3 flight results. Your design concept to have redundant powersources by leaving the individual batteries in the camera’s proved to be a good choice allowing us to see the flight movie. (Too bad we did not see an aircraft passing by……amazing that the optics did not get fogged)
Your preliminary report indicates…first 3 minutes A-OK, then a powersupply failure developed disabling the FlCC and as a result loss of GPS Downlink.
Question: Your PS is a set of serial connected AA-cells?, did they still show capacity at recovery? loss of power due to poor (wired) connection or intercell discontinuity?
Again, I enjoy your experiments and applaud the results……

Your colorfull recovery parachute probably was what caught the eye of Claudia. Well Tim you are fortunate your next flight has to be called CLAUDIA rather than a weird name of a German farmer…….
I am very anxious to read about your findings on the flight evaluation, hopefully it will reveal why you lost commo links with the balloon.
Let’s hope TNT, DHL, UPS etc donot screw up and get you the package safely back home.
This recovery shall help you to keep up the good work in hi-altitude missions using a minimum budget…….well done

Sorry to hear the project ‘ended’ this way. I hope that the sonde will be returned. I know that the majoruty of the ozon-sondes lauchend by the KNMI weekly are returned once found by someone. My experience with hunting radiosondes also tells me that there are a lot of trees in the Netherlands and Germany and things falling from the sky under a parachute have a kind of attraction for falling into woods and trees…
I presume you have your adress details included in the box so any finder of the box can contact you. Once they have opened it and after they have discovered the tracking devices like the GPS tag they think the box can be tracked so the camera’s and other equipement will not be stolen. At least I wouldn’t.

When I find the box with it’s content I will contact you and you can keep your 125 euro’s for further experiments.

The team set at least the record of driving 430 km in a little over 5 hours on sunday 19 december while roadconditions were icy and speedlimits of 50 km/hr on hi-ways were enforced….Driver Onno…a job well done.

…and Tim, there maybe an option #0 that your balloon is still up as it failed to rupture :-).
Lessons learned: perform temperature soak and shock test to electronics and run telemetrics on tethered balloon just prior to launch.

To expedite recovery & return procedure you need some media attention, a 5 minutes airtime at e.g. De Wereld Draait Door or a call via Radio Fryslan might help.

What goes up, must come down…..
Tim, did it splash down, or crash on solid grounds?
A 1000 MHz shift? yes it is cool outside but an x-tal cannot drift that much…
Back to the drawing board and enjoy your holidays